Denise’s Story

“I’m a lead instructor for Friends of Literacy’s adult program. I love it. The program really fits a need – a lot of people don’t recognize that. You may have something very basic in the supermarket, where someone will stop you and say, “I left my reading glasses at home, can you tell me what this says?” But it’s really because they can’t read.

I’m passionate about what I do; it’s almost magical, the change that you see with the students. They walk in with a heavy burden because they can’t read or they don’t have their GED, and the first thing you see in the classes is a change in attitude, a change in behavior, a change in presentation. They’re walking with their heads held high because they feel like they can make a difference in their personal community. And we find that we become cheerleaders for them, we become mentors for them. We’re changing Knoxville one life at a time.”